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that matter to you al-jazeera. i am from the ok and you're on the stream live on you tube and i'm really good live today nearly seventy years on what will it take to in the korean war discuss the ongoing prospects for peace on the korean peninsula. for some americans the korean war is considered a forgotten conflict for north korea the three years of fighting that killed more than two million between one hundred fifty and nine hundred fifty three remains a constant reminder for vigilance against what pyongyang sees as u.s. imperialist aggression more than six decades since one thousand nine hundred fifty three armistice the historic into korean summit held last month. resulted in yet another place between north and south korean leaders to officially end the korean

war by the close of this year so today we want to look at the backdrop for tensions on the korean peninsula and current prospects for ending the war with us on sight is mintaro has a former u.s. diplomat and speechwriter focusing on u.s. foreign policy in asia and santa cruz california christine hong she's a professor at the university of california santa cruz and a member of the korea policy institute and in honolulu christina on she is the founder and international corden leader of women across d.m.z. that's a global movement of women mobilizing to in the korean war reunite families and ensure women's leadership in peace building welcome to all of our guests this spring and it's a really good. so let's start with a little bit of a newsreel from nine hundred fifty have a look have a listen at this. go real united nations troops push on them the point is that it's against the communists. to think this

general ridgeway stage is not to see but to wipe out the enemy the chinese red army by desperately in small isolated refers to a wider front rather than join a battle and it's up to the in. the pockets of die hard copy. so professor this war is not over yet the impact of this on finnish war on relations with north korea and the west what you think the odds of it not being officially ended is. you know the greatest impact has been actually on the korean people in your opening segment you indicated that two million people in terms of koreans were killed during this conflict this is an asymmetrical war of aggression on the part of the united states and it's sobering to realize that the number was even greater than that most historians state that approximately one million koreans

were killed majority of them were civilians the united states policy toward north korea from the middle part of the twentieth century to the present moment has been an unyielding policy of regime change and so you know when people speak about the north korean threat they don't understand and is the key issue the role that aggressive u.s. war in policy has had in creating this perceived threat so you know i think that right now with the discussion of peace which is so very long overdue you let's keep in mind that the last generation of people who were actually children during the time of the hot fighting in the middle part a tween century their elder and elderly now and they're passing away and so for that particular generation as well as everyone who actually fought in this continent they didn't anticipate that the results of this war on the korean peninsula would be lasting until for several decades they anticipated that peace

would come and so belatedly honestly we have the prospect of a discussion of peace. christiane you spent time on the korean peninsula both sides of a day and say when your with people down on the ground real people not politicians not officials do you still feel that impact of the war not being done yet do they tell you about that absolutely i just returned from south korea actually. right at the same time actually. reading it. but sure exam. paul as they were meeting i was at a station overlooking the engine ritter and through a telescope i was looking on to north korean soil and i overheard a father's tell his son we are one people but we can't see them and i think that that is an important story that needs to be really brought out is the division of the korean people the millions of families still in north and south

korea in fact as we were marching with twelve hundred south korean women in the d.m.z. we crossed the region fictitious bridge which was the bridge that was built in one thousand nine hundred eight and former c.e.o. ken day brought five hundred cattle across that bridge we were the first civilians to ever walk that bridge and and i was walking with one of the korean women actually you may see her picture right there with the visor she's actually from north korea and she still has family in north korea so this has a deeply resonant meeting for millions of korean families that still need to fight it and just to bring in perspective of the north koreans to me i said i've been to north korea eight times i have visited throughout the country and especially talking to people who live in the rural communities women farmers who say you know we have been living under you and u.s. sanctions and that definitely impacts their day to day existence their ability to

have adequate food their ability to have heat to heat their homes their oil to cook so i think we have to look at the whole package u.s. foreign policy and the impact of families on the korean peninsula on the well being the human rights of north korean people i hear you there christine and when we're talking about the legacy of this war that some refer to race in the united states as forgotten war one of the things our community is bringing up is that because of that there are missed. options here's one from khalid on twitter who says yes one of the misconceptions is to imply or infer at times that north korea is not a rational actor thereby in virtually portraying hostile responses to it as necessary or required similar was used with iraq and consistently with the palestinians he uses two examples there but there is someone in our community mintaro who says there is a history to this there's

a history to the reason why people use this phrase rational action whether or not north korea is one and she says it has to do with the war this is a culver had to tell the story the north koreans have essentially defined themselves in terms of a struggle against outside powers for a very long period of time they were under japanese control from nine hundred ten until one nine hundred forty five then occupied by the soviets and of course suffered the devastating korean war where in some areas up to twenty percent of the population perished amidst the struggles and so this narrative of resistance is still deeply embedded in the culture of the north korean state so she calls it a narrative a resistance which you agree with all that's absolutely right resistance is central to the north korean ideology in fact it's centered around self-reliance. i would

say it's more about u.s. and western perceptions of north korea that they're sort of baffled by how this small weak state can continue to threaten the outside world and i think for many people that question is best result by considering it irrational. professor i'm just thinking about. how the war is viewed from the other side of the d.m.z. from north korea what intel do you have about how people. are thinking about this potential peace process. you know it's not even intelligent i'd say that if you it's just common sense that people as christine on risk and who has been under u.s. war policy including sanctions sanctions were part of truman's were policy three days into the hot fighting of the korean war they were an explicit part of u.s.

war policy from that moment forward there is no country on this earth that is more sanctioned the north korea and so basically on the north korean and i'd say that this is just deciding you can go anywhere throughout the country and you can speak to people who were on the level of their families and they were personally impacted by the korean war silence so when you're talking about korea and north korean society there's no society on this earth that understands more intimately what it means to be in the crosshairs of the u.s. war machine what you saw in terms of the penryn john decoration you know and the meeting of the two leaders which was live streamed around the world with that showcase was it wasn't just the north korean people's desire for peace it was the korean people's desire for peace and so let's make no mistake historically the united states in its triangulated role with the two koreas has played an

obstructionist role in the post cold war period north korea fully assumed that it would be allowed to normalize relations with with the united states and that it would enter into the international order as just a normal state actor one u.s. president after another prevented that from happening and so you know what you saw in terms of the punjab declaration is that marine jane you know the president who you see right now on your screen he was elected in a snap election in the south what happened was his neo conservative predecessor. who is a daughter of a dictator who implemented all my. national's very draconian national security policy who had all manner of neoliberal policies that put the south korean people at risk he was corrupt and she's now in prison what happened was the south korean people took to the streets and millions in these candlelight vigil these historic a candlelight tests in twenty sixteen they ousted her and part of their mandate in

electing gene and the snap election was that they deputized him to negotiate with north korea he has eighty five percent support from the south korean people for peace and so you can see that the koreas are united in desire for peace and right now they're asking donald trump to join what christiane has called the peace train that. they could go ahead when we talk about these talks and the potential summit there is the desire for peace but then there's also a concern online that there are certain things that need to be on the table before peace can happen here's a tweet we got from chang who who says frankly speaking i think this summer tree is ridiculous if it is the starting point of diplomacy when i say it's worth trying however if the summit wants to achieve a c.v. idea which is a complete and irreversible demilitarize ation then i say the north korea is not

serious to hold the summit i say the us must get north korea's promise christina i'm wondering what you think about this and if this is actually on the table or or if it is in good faith will this happen well i think that is part of the distortion coming from the u.s. media and u.s. officials that have so i want. situation to be on the korean peninsula but having just come from seoul having actually met with the ministry of foreign affairs the south korean i think that the perspective is that we know from the north korean side they want a peace treaty and from the u.s. side they really. what do you fear is asian and what i think south korea and japan has been doing is trying to put forward the mediation role which is actually that the two need to go hand in hand and unfortunately the way that the narrative is especially with mainstream media in this country is that there is you know eternal obsession with the denuclearization of korea of north korea without any historical

context without putting forward this kind of history that christine hong laid out and that is you know when we look at what happened to iraq if we look at what happened to libya which now john bolton is saying that that's how the u.s. the use the u.s. policy in approach towards north korea is the libya regime change model that led to basically the assassination of of qaddafi this is not going to yield there is ation of north korea and what must be on the table to actually achieve that if there is asian are concrete steps towards normalization towards a lifting of sanctions unless those two things take place at the same time we're not going to see progress towards north korea giving up its nuclear weapons why would they. mentor let me share this view president trump got up quite early this morning six thirty am he was twenty we have put a great team together for talks with north korea meetings the county taking place

concerning summit and more kim jong sure the vice chairman of north korea heading out to new york summit response to my letter thank you that was the letter where he said where are we not going to say anymore we're not talking you're not my friend i might blow you up but i'm paraphrasing here but if you do want to come back to me i'm paraphrasing just slightly what let's go. through i think that with. what's. drawing all diplomatic experience here what is happening to set up a summit behind the scenes people just don't turn up with an agenda what's happening right now well let me just talk about the u.s. delegation that's currently in korea right now having meetings at the border with north korean officials to prepare for the summit because i actually worked with and for two of the numbers of that delegation. who is currently the u.s. ambassador to the philippines he is one of the few people who's had direct

experience negotiating with the north koreans he's someone who likes to let others talk is very good at letting others put their cards on the table he's very knowledgeable about the issue and he's very much a problem solver and he's accompanied by the national security council who's also very competent and very knowledgeable about north korea so if you're someone who believes that preparation is important for this summit then this team should give you a lot of confidence so not everyone on line though is confident in the u.s. is abilities this is a comment we've got live on you tube elizabeth says i think north and south korea will have to negotiate without influence from other countries like the u.s. or china however i don't know if that's possible another person on twitter saying something very similar as the end of u.s. they involve. interference in the korean peninsula and the peace summit can bring into the korean war legally perfessor could. take itself

out of involvement in these talks or legally do they have to be involved. i mean if you look at who the signatories were for the korean war armistice agreement and talking about the july twenty seventh one thousand nine hundred sixty three armistice agreement there were three parties that were signatories it was north korea china and the united states and so technically you know what that document actually specified was a number of things but it stated that within three months time that those three signatories should return to the peace table to hammer out a permanent peace agreement and you know that's never happened and so technically speaking if you're thinking about a peace treaty it's going to involve congress but it also involves fundamentally the united states the united states is a key. it's a key actor in the negotiation of a peace process the other thing to you is that you know it's very interesting to

see the very skillful very adroit diplomacy that has been exercised by when jane but when jane and south korea is in a hard place because historically south korea has been semi sovereign that's because the united states to this day retains command authority over south korean military forces in times of war crisis the united states in violation of the terms of the armistice agreement still stations roughly thirty thousand u.s. military forces south of the d.m.z. operates about eighty military installations until it has basically conducted these joint military exercises with south korea that are the largest in the world that i'm simulate to the invasion and occupation of north korea that simulate the decapitation of north korea's leadership and that also as recently as just

a couple of weeks ago in this operation max thunder simulate operations that in. a potential nuclear first strike against north korea so when we're talking about the question of peace and we're talking about the question of denuclearization the united states has to realize that it has commensurate obligations denuclearization is not the task of north korea alone the united states has to withdraw that regionally it has to rethink its entire regional cost posture and actually give security guarantees to north korea that actually remove the possibility of what has been possible from the middle of the twentieth century to now which is on the united states threatening north korea with nuclear annihilation had that not the case and had george w. bush not placed north korea on a list of short routes to permissible first strike targets of u.s. nuclear action back in two thousand and two north korea would not have seen fit to

take to the nuclear road had north korea as christine on stated not seen what the united states had done in one regime change action after another with iraq as an example and then libya it would not have taken to the nuclear road so north korea is now in possession of a nuclear deterrent and it's actually calling for peace and so you know we have to realize that paradoxically north korea which described itself as a peace loving nuclear power and in control and new year's address this past year is actually that it's using its nuclear deterrent as a lever to be able to discuss the prospect of peace. or of. kristen because they well i would just also add to what professor hong seligman least it was as much as i want to say that peace train has left the station and that north and south korea are progressing irrespective of what donald trump does with his the bush diplomacy is that we know from the previous era of the sunshine era where kim dae kim jong.

now sides a policy of one and detente with the south korean president and then we hear on is that it reached basically a glass ceiling because the u.s. policy of aggression towards north korea as a professor hung about it the axis of evil north korea's place along with iran and iraq in the axis of evil and so as much as you want to see interest in progress it will always be constrained and greatly. in have to negatively impacted by u.s. hostility towards north korea so we have to see these two parallel tracks taking place and i think just bring it back to what the south koreans and u.n. has been saying is we want both denuclearization and pursuit of the peace treaty to go side by side and that we are not going to see the denuclearization of north

korea and north korea giving up is when deterrence unless they have guaranteed security and that's going to come in the form of concrete steps including the removal of and normalize relations between the u.s. and north korea one of the things we'd be remiss if we didn't bring up today is human rights because so many of our community members are discussing that disappear one person on twitter says if monday and truly wants to help north korea human rights talk is inevitable another person edward saying that human rights should not be ignored when dealing with north korea because north korea is the world's premier violator of them in his words and one last person says unfortunately this is the killer characteristics of south korean leftists they're extremely reluctant to raise any issues which can make the north korea regime uncomfortable like human rights are i'm wondering what you think of this issue will it be on the table or is that something that officials are unwilling to push while north korea's grave and

systematic human rights abuses have been very well documented. and i think that it's something that the trumpet ministration cares about but the main issue here is really the security of the united states the security of south korea and so the main issue during the summit is going to be dating for zation and how to resolve that issue you know if i could just add something here you know it's to say that the trump first of all i would disagree that the trumpet ministration actually cares about human rights even though donald trump. you know attempted recently in his state of the union address to take a page out of the george w. bush axis of evil human rights playbook by bringing a north korean to factor to washington d.c. and doing a shout out to him during his remarks the fact of the matter is is donald trump as recently as last year let's just not forget in front of the united nations basically declare that he was willing to totally destroy north korea and those

remarks were construed by human rights scholars and experts as a declaration of genocide intention or genocide and that's a crucial part of the legal definition of genocide what we're missing when we're talking about human rights is actually what. during the norm berg trial and in terms of the rome statute for the international criminal court was held to be the biggest human rights violation of office is noted as the crime of crimes and that was aggressive war or are crimes against the peace that is precisely what the united states in terms of its war of intervention right against korea committed so when we're talking about the greatest human rights violation of all we're talking about u.s. aggression on the korean peninsula and there has been a staggering culture of immunity and impunity that has evolved in the wake of that

i had to. confess and christina right at the end of the show i'm just i have time to just also. who has been walking on the korean peninsula and doing diplomacy first such a long time this moment how would you describe this moment we're in right now this is a really remarkable moment we've never seen this confluence of factors. you know korean president who wants to engage north korea a u.s. president who wants to be seen as a great deal maker in north korea confident. in nuclear power and i think that presents a real tactical opportunity to make progress toward denuclearization that toward reducing tensions and peace and that's what i hope to see professor christine. on the side on thank you for joining us today. taking.

the nature news as it breaks this is one of the areas where. the roads you see higher than anything they could find with details coverage. everyone. from around the world this museum aims to be a repository of a region's history and the war that has divided tribes here for generations. in the next episode of earth tries. to enter grouping screwed on a voyage through the wiggle sea to highlight the importance of protecting this fragile antarctic ecosystem against an expanding list of manmade threats beneath the surface of this magnificent desolation is just t.v. with life. these are some of the locals who saw the nz arctic century on

al-jazeera. an archaeology graduate from iraq he's also a part time going to pergamon museum which includes a reconstruction of the famous ishtar gate in most of the people he's showing around came to germany as refugees this is just one of several billion museums taking part in the project called meeting point and as well as bringing people together one of its aims is to emphasise the contribution of migrants right up to the present day to western culture. because i've been here for some time i can help them with lots of things forward to me the great thing is it's not just about museums about forming a new life in a part of life it's culture getting to the heart of the matter if. the supreme leader calls you today and says let's have talks would you accept facing the realities what do you think reunification of look like there are two people think the peace for unification is the only option for prosperity of south korea here

this story on talk to al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. and live from studio fourteen here at al-jazeera headquarters in doha fully back to bow welcome to the news great back from the dead. who was said to have been gunned down in ukraine so at a news come. friends in kiev. a vocal critic of the kremlin has thanks ukraine security services for saving his life will happen live report from moscow on this extraordinary story also on the grid the highest ranking north korean official to visit the u.s. in eighteen years kim young charlie is due in new york for talks with the secretary of state michael bale it's all part of a flurry of diplomatic.